Boulder County bans smoking on downtown courthouse lawn

BOULDER -- Boulder County has banned smoking on the grounds of its downtown Boulder buildings, including the lawn and plaza outside the old Courthouse building at 1325 Pearl St.

The smoking prohibition took effect immediately Tuesday morning, after County Commissioners Cindy Domenico and Will Toor voted to include the ban in Boulder County government's personnel and policy manual for county employees.

Commissioner Deb Gardner was absent from Tuesday's Board of County Commissioners' business meeting, where her colleagues enacted the ban.

The county's outdoor smoking ban, which also applies to the grounds of buildings housing the Land Use Department at 2045 13th St. and the Transportation Department at 2525 13th St., covers the lawns, sidewalks and parking lot through and around the Courthouse building complex in the downtown Boulder block between 13th and 14th streets and Walnut and Spruce streets.

Boulder County already had prohibited smoking inside the courthouse and other county government buildings. Smoking also was already banned inside county vehicles.

The county's outdoor smoking ban outside its downtown Boulder properties complements one the Boulder City Council is in the process of adopting, under an ordinance that would prohibit smoking along a four-block stretch of the Pearl Street Mall starting in January.

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County commissioners had stated their support of a city pedestrian-mall smoking ban in a letter to Boulder city officials in October.

Signs have been posted on Courthouse doors alerting visitors that effective Tuesday, "this will be a smoke-free campus, including the Courthouse lawn. This is being done in cooperation with the city of Boulder's smoking ban on Pearl Street Mall."

The Courthouse grounds smoking ban that's now part of the county personnel policy manual carries no specific penalties for violations by county employees, but offenders on the Courthouse lawn could be ticketed under the city's smoking prohibition, once that takes effect. The city ordinance that's expected to get final Boulder City Council approval later this month would carry fines of up to $500 for the first or second smoking-ban violation within two years' time, or a fine of up to $1,000 and a jail sentence of up to 90 days for conviction of a third offense within two years' time.

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